Ben Filewod
Ben is an economist and forester, currently helping develop work on conservation finance in the Grantham Research Institute’s newly created ForestLAB. His work emphasizes ‘big’ datasets and geospatial tools.
Background
Ben’s doctoral work at the University of Toronto focused on forest sector development paths, remote sensing of forest management, and the theory and empirics of productivity measurement. He has been extensively involved in the Canadian forest sector, including three years spent as the climate change lead for the Forest Products Association of Canada. He holds an M.Sc. in forest ecology and a B.A. in Environment and Development studies.
Research interests
- Forest sector development
- Green growth
- Offsets and climate finance
- Economic applications of geospatial ‘big data’
- Environmental behavioural economics
Research
Research - 2023
This letter to Science, co-authored by 17 conservation and climate researchers, argues that carbon credits can be a valuable tool for climate change mitigation and forest conservation, but their success depends on improving their credibility. Read more
To help nature-based offsets reach their potential for climate change mitigation, this working paper proposes an alternative approach to managing the issue of market leakage. Read more
News
News - 2023
This commentary explores how net climate change mitigation benefits can be achieved from using carbon credits, despite the variable and uncertain quality of credits. Read more
